No, it's not about the pop group from the 90's!!

It's about the wettest start to the Royal Adelaide Show in a hundred years.

They say there were a thousand lightning strikes in the metro area, all I know is the thunder was so close it caused a traffic accedent in my pants!!

7.30am Friday, all 4 horses and the two ponys loaded well and we were out the gate on time on our way to the Show in good spirits. Tony Hall, Kate, Nick and Briony and myself looking forward to a great day ( if a bit wet).

The first days compitition was the Section 4's . Tony was a little nervius as he is riding a new horse that has not done a lot of this type of thing, the same for Kate. The most nervious is our 4th section member, Caitlin Solly, she hasn't done ANYTHING like this before.

We have been training for 6 months and there have been a few problems with Caitlins horse Max being a bit strong for her, but we got that sorted after I had a few rides on him out show jumping ( I'm looking forward to doing a bit more of that too, he's a really good jumper). Given that we had 3 new horses and one new rider all bets were off in regards to any possible placing. As Tony said "As long as we don't look foolish and jump all the jumps I'll be happy."

To cut a long story short, we went around the course without mishap and only one or two mistakes. We were mighty chuffed!!! Headed back to the stalls with smiles all round, still with no expectation of any ribbon. We were to have a second run half an hour later and I thought it prudent to remove the sodden bandages, this all took time . Down to the last horse and a messanger from the main ring( we were out of ear shot of the PA) bolts in to say we are want for the prize giving ceramony! So , on we climb and head out to the arena expecting ,perhaps a 6th ribbon.

To our great surprise we had finished 2nd!!!! Holy snaping sunfish!!

An amasing result, we must have been a bit shell shocked in the second round as we couldn't get a look in that run. Not that any one of us was complaining,

The video does show just how wet it was.

The next day Nick, my 9 year old son, had his first Rider Class. I wasn't there to watch as I was still dealing with the truck that had brokendown on the way home the night before. He didn't get called in but he did have a grin the size of the sun when he came to tell me about it later. I watched the video later and in typical fatherly style thought, the miserable buggers !! Fatherly pride does blur the lines a bit sometimes lol.

Kate had a couple of pony classes on the pony that we had bought for Nick (but we decided he was a bit too much for him to ride in the Show) . On Tuesday, Nick had his other class, Good Hands Championship. His great old pony Peace ( she is 25 this year) rose to the task and went around like she was half her age. Didn't get called in , but again, the boys smile was stellar .

All home safe and sound , the ponys were very happy to be back on the grass in their home paddock. The truck lives to go again next week to yet another outing. Enjoy the video's

Cheers Geoffrey